One World Trade Center emerges as name for rebuilt tower at ground zero

One World Trade Center has succeeded the Freedom Tower as the official name for the signature skyscraper rising at ground zero to replace the fallen twin towers.

It was first named the Freedom Tower in the first master plan to rebuild the site of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. State officials said the name of the tallest, most symbolic of five planned office towers would demonstrate the country's triumph vs. terrorism. But officials heading the agency that owns the site confirmed Thursday that the name had long ago taken second place to its official title: One World Trade Center.

Mark Lennihan/APAnthony Coscia, left, the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Lun Feng, the chairman of Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., shake hands after signing a lease agreement for five floors of the Freedom Tower Thursdayin New York. The Port Authority is constructing the Freedom Tower, which is scheduled to open in 2013. Beijing Vantone is expected to take up floors 65 through 69 in the 102-floor tower for the China Center, a business service center that helps Chinese companies start up offices around the world. Chris Ward, center, is the executive director of the Port Authority.

"As we market the building, we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way," said Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. "One World Trade Center is its address. It's the one that we're using. It's the one that's easiest for people to identify with and frankly, we've gotten a very interested and warm reception to it."

A Beijing real estate company earlier this week became the first corporate tenant at ground zero.

Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co. was to sign a lease Thursday for over five floors of the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site, the site's owner said. The company plans to open a center that helps Chinese businesses open offices around the world.

The 20-year lease, with rents beginning at $80 a square foot, is similar to terms agreed to last June with the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

One World Trade Center -- which was once the name for the north trade center tower -- has been the 1,776-foot tower's legal name for the past few years, although officials more commonly called the building the Freedom Tower.

The first 25-ton steel column for the building was installed in 2006, emblazoned with the words "Freedom Tower." The name was also on a granite cornerstone set into place at the tower's first groundbreaking in 2004, though it has since been taken off the site.

A release announcing the first corporate tenant to sign a lease in the tower referred to the building as "One World Trade Center (the Freedom Tower)."

The agency's executive director, Chris Ward, suggested that the building's true name wouldn't be decided until well after it opens in 2013.

"There are a lot of buildings that have popular names," he said. "If the Freedom Tower is a popular name, as people think about this that will be the choice."